Half-Life: Half-Moon
by Necril
Summary: One must never forget that a half, is a part of a whole. But the Combine apparently had no understanding of this concept; they believed that splitting the whole in halves, quarters, eights…would assure the Overwatch's dominance over Earth…
1. Chapter 1: Haptic

Foreword:

**I have always been a fan of zombie survival and alternate reality sci-fi worlds, games, moves, books and…fan fictions. And thus I wanted to write a story of my own, inside a universe that I like, with fictional characters blended in with the original story line without distorting the line of events. But I didn't just want to add fictional characters. I have written fan-fics before of…other nature, and I wanted to do something new and interesting with this one.**

**Instead of making fictional characters, I want to use myself and people that I know in real life as characters in this fiction. This is hardly something new or breath-taking or original but if correctly handled, it will be a very realistic and interesting story. But I won't stop at that, as this will be a collaborated fiction, made by me and a friend of mine; we will both work on the story as far as plot and development goes, though I will be the one typing in all the text.**

**Why do it like this? As much as I have some experience in making characters unique and distinguishable I can never be as original as a real person, thus my friend will assume his role in the story, will react as he would in a real situation, would say things that he would in a real life situation, and so forth. I hope that we will be able to deliver an interesting story of us, The Resistance, Gordon Freeman and all the other fractions and characters of the Half Life Universe as we struggle towards the liberation of Earth…**

Chapter 1: Haptic

The rain was battering the empty street of the city and I was leaning against the wall, looking at the grey scenery. Somehow the presence of rain or sun did not affect my mood at all anymore. Whether the world would be bathed in light or not made no difference when grey was the only colour that still existed. Everything was equally lifeless, deprived of sense, charm and purpose. Ever since that dreadful incident five years ago, the world went to hell…several times over. Our freedom: gone, our lives before the Combine: irrelevant, our knowledge: useless. It didn't matter if you were an engineer, a medic, an artist, an actor, a major in languages or a doctor in theoretical physics… though, as the rumours go, the last is apparently a good start as the fabled Gordon Freeman, from across the Atlantic Ocean, managed to fight his way against the Xen invaders and the former US forces.

Unfortunately for us, in Europe, distance was irrelevant in the long run, as the Portal Storm that raged after the Black Mesa incident ravaged the entire planet. Vortigaunts, headcrabs, antlions, barnacles… as well as some other, more rare and "exotic" creatures came through, followed by the Combine. When that happened, my friend, Aposiopesis, and I were in Germany, sightseeing Berlin. Needless to say we still were there. This had…some pros and some cons, of course. The pros being that we were alive in one of the C-cities of the Combine, that we had some "food", as much as that was an overstatement, and that we were protected from the headcrabs, antlions and other Xen and non Xen life forms that would have us for lunch. Of course "protection" was mostly a figure of speech nowadays. The cons being that we didn't know German and that we had food to eat, clothes to wear and had protection from the headcrabs, antlions and other Xen and non Xen life forms that would have us for lunch.

Aposiopesis and I had this habit of being sarcastic about everything…if nothing else it made our lives that much more bearable and relatively more enjoyable and bearable… Added some flavour, a sense of being human still.

"Akhem…" He cleared his throat and I turned my head away from the window. "Necril, as much as I'd hate to interrupt your line of thoughts…we should go to the food dispenser soon…" He said with calm and even voice, as always.

I scoffed in response and pushed my glasses up my nose.

"I've always believed in magic." I paused briefly as I rubbed my head. "For example I magically am no longer hungry now!"

"Yes, I can imagine. At any rate, I suggest that as soon as the rain stops, or at least diminishes, we should go to the rations."

"Sure…" I looked through the window again. The rain had no signs of easing down its onslaught. On the brighter side of things, if it didn't stop, we could have a shower! A cold one, but a shower none the less. Since there was practically no economy any more and no cars in mass usage…the rain was as clear and clean as it gets. Even if it wasn't it was still better than the water from the tap…for drinking anyway.

A bit later we went to the old town hall and were queued behind the other survivors as the CPs were walking calmly about and gave us "the stare". Their radio chatter was the loudest thing to break the silence, but it was so distorted that I couldn't even tell what language they were talking in. Some of the other people in the queue were mumbling among each other and I could catch and understand some words but…not enough to completely comprehend what they were saying. As much as we were forced to live in Berlin, now known as C43, we did have some communication with the locals and it was inevitable not to learn some German.

Eventually our turn came for the supplies from the vending machine and we took our bags with food, and other basic supplies, before heading back through the mizzle to the apartment block where we lived. Despite our relatively warm, blue, standardized clothes it was cold as autumn was rolling in. The few trees that weren't cut down yet, were sleeping and had lost their foliage. This coupled very well with the slowly crumbling façades of the once nice buildings. Some of those were traditional at that.

The decaying leaves were now littering the ground, along with quite a lot of cans of freely dispensed water, old newspapers, flyers and propaganda posters. Everything was miserable and degrading faster than one would believe possible for an inhabited settlement.

"I really hate it how everything is so…unmaintained." Aposiopesis said and I looked at him, driven away from my thoughts. Only eerie silence followed his words. I sighed and averted my eyes to the nearest building, which was sealed off with planks, nailed to the chained doors and to the windows of the first floor.

"What does it matter?" I asked, more myself rather than as a reply.

"Well I don't know…I suppose that if we at least bothered to keep this city clean, it would look as dreadful as it does."

"I suppose…but then again do you think that anyone would be bothered with doing that? I mean, most apartments are dirtier than the street." I replied puffed.

"Yes, you are right. They don't have rain to wash the floor every so often."

I scoffed with mirth.

"Good point."

"I think that we shouldn't just…drop our old habits just because we are enslaved and unable to reproduce and because we are being poisoned through the water supplies…"

"That sounds convincing as hell." I replied and looked towards one of the allies that we were passing by. I caught a glimpse of a small group of people who were sneaking out of the city through the sewers. "People seem very keen on taking away their own lives nowadays."

"As if the Combine need help with that. Even so, what do you mean?" We turned around our corner and one of the scanners flew above our heads, beeping monotonously as always.

"There was a small bunch of Resistance heading in the sewers in that alley behind us."

"Oh. That." He seemed completely unmoved as usual. One of his many characteristics was that he only expressed emotions when he actually felt them…unlike most people that I knew before and after the surrender, and this made him seem a bit deprived of emotions to people who didn't know him. On the other side, seeing people trying to flee was nothing new for us.

Aposiopesis pushed the front door of the complex open and it screeched. We walked inside and started climbing the stairs to the eighth floor. The damp air was sticky and there was the smell of mold and urine in the air.

"I suppose that a life outside might not be as bad as we assume." He said suddenly with low voice. I refrained from commenting before walking in our apartment, replaying to that as soon as the door closed behind me.

"Are you telling me that you want to escape?" I asked, not hiding my surprise.

"Want…is a strong word, but I would really rather manage myself instead of being "managed" by the Combine, they being the loving things that they are."

"Honestly… I would rather tackle headcrabs and zombies than having to deal with this mundane life."

"So this leaves just one question then!" He said with faked excitement as he turned around to face me. I didn't say anything awaiting the answer of the indirect question. "We need to have something to eat. And find the Resistance. And get out of C43 unnoticed. And survive the winter. And have a place to be…"

"Yes, yes. I get it." I bashed dismissively with my hand and placed the bag of rations on the table. "If there were books still…I suppose that we would be able to learn how to grow basic things…like tomatoes and potatoes and stuff like that and live in a house in the Alps or somewhere in the middle of nowhere, far from Combine and just…I don't know, deal with our own issues, not with the issues of these aliens."

"Yes, and the sun will shine and smile and pink and fluffy unicorns will be dancing on rainbows every day." Aposiopesis opened his bag and spilled its contents on the old round table.

"I won't mind." I shrugged and laughed.

"Neither would I but this is as likely as the Combine falling because of the Resistance."

"I thought that we were talking about impossible things." I replied quickly and my friend scoffed with a smirk.

"Optimist."

"It's something…." I shrugged my shoulders.

"Apparently five years of no internet has not driven away the memes from your mind."

"I see that we are returning to the sphere of impossible things…" My voice drifted away as I walked into the other room.

It was the bedroom, which had two beds and a wardrobe. Nothing more. Before the Combine this was a pretty good place to be but currently everything decorative was taken away. Paintings, carpets, any items which had no "meaningful" purpose, computers, radios…There was only an old TV set left, that we never used, which had nothing on. We didn't quite understand why they left the TV of all things.

I opened the wardrobe and looked at the basked of dirty clothes. It seemed like I would have to do the laundry. I picked up the old, broken basket and walked back to the living room-kitchen, mused in my own thoughts. The one thing that I really and most honestly missed was music…And by luck or just because I was creative enough, I had managed to save small electronic devices and a headset, which were now neatly tugged under a lose plank under my bed. But, even so, they were just gathering dust there.

"I'll go do the laundry." I announced calmly with no focus in my voice as I made my way to the front door or the apartment.

"Don't mix up the clothes! I would hate if I wore the same clothes as you do." Aposiopesis said as he was opening my package of rations. I just laughed and took the stairs to the laundry room at the ground floor of the building. From what I could gather this was a former dormitory or…just a building which had a laundry room. I can't say that I cared much. As much as we tried not to lose ourselves in this oppression it was a bit hard…

I put our blue uniforms and other pieces of clothing that we had in one of the few working machines, closed it, added some detergent, which I had no clear idea why the Combine distributed, then pushed the button and sat in front of the machine. Truth be told, the Combine did give us things like soap and every once in a blue moon new clothes. Blue of course. Speaking of which, we learned the hard way that we had to stay at the side of the washing machine as one time, someone picked up our clothes and we had a hard time explaining to the CPs that we needed new clothes.

I waited patiently as my stomach grumbled. Some other people came in every once in a while and put their clothes in the other working machines. Some of the locals gave me a judging look but I honestly didn't care any more. I couldn't help but to notice how tattered their clothes were, how poorly maintained they seemed, unshaved or unwashed. I could only imagine how weird I looked, being without beard and with relatively clean clothes.

Everyone nowadays was weary and suspected everyone of everything. I couldn't blame them really. Reporting suspicious activity or suspicious citizens was awarded with better food and clothes. As these fast five years passed, it wasn't hard to see how our neighbours became fewer and fewer. Some fled, some were deported, some were just never seen or heard of since. Aposiopesis and I were called in once too and the CPs ransacked our apartment but since they didn't find anything, they let us go…for good or for bad. This was a good reason to flee, though, for sure.

In almost an hour the machine clicked ready, breaking my line of thoughts, and I looked at it. Getting up, I took the wet clothes and put them in the basket, heading back up. As I walked in the apartment the smell of warm food hit my nostrils. I can't say that it smelled delicious, but it was food. And it was warm.

"Oh, what are we having?" I asked, clearly aware of what we were going to eat.

"Well…" My friend said and sighed, as he looked at the steaming pot on the old cooker. "Normally, we would have sludge, like yesterday. Or the day before yesterday. Or any other day for the last five years… But today is a special day! Today we will have sludge!"

"Oh! My favourite!" I said with faked excitement and went to the small terrace to hang the clothes.

As soon as I was done with that I joined him at the table and we ate in silence. We rarely spoke in general as we didn't need to most of the times. From one side, there was little to talk about, apart from the Combine, the decaying city or the slow death of our civilization. On another side we understood each other without any problem as quite a long time before the Seven Hour War, we did realize that we were something like twin brothers separated at birth…more or less.

"So…the Resistance you say, eh?" He asked as he let the spoon slide lazily in the last bites of sludge.

"A sudden change of heart after all this time?"

"Hardly a sudden change. I was just waiting to "have enough of it" first."

"So, that last bite of sludge was it?" I asked as I went on eating, finishing my own extravagant meal.

"You can say that." He stretched his reply and tapped on the plate.

"As much as I am all for that, I must say that just before winter…is not the best time to be heroic alone in the wild."

"Under normal conditions I would agree, but as things are, conditions are not normal and if we just put it all off for later…we will keep doing that every time."

I paused for a moment. He was right, of course. I was one to know this from first hand.

"So, when are we rolling out the tanks with rocket launchers and remote control helicopters?" He rubbed his hands.

"Soon."

"Oh, my favourite time!" He rubbed his hands. "I can't wait to get started!"

I sighed and puffed.

"Well, we need to get to some resistance dudes who…are part of the Resistance and they need to know English. Also we need to remain unspotted by the Combine."

"It makes jungling with Sona sound like the most ingenious plan even, doesn't it?" He said with a grin and finished his meal.

"Talk about inside jokes."

"Hey, it's not like there's anyone around here to not understand it." He replied waving his hand.

"True enough." I paused for a moment. "But on the bright side, if we leave, we will have new things to think about and do."

"I will have to check my schedule then." He got up and took the dirty plates before heading to the sink.

"I can understand why. Anyway, enough sarcasm, let's just think how to do it." I said. "I know some locations where the Resistance seems to gather up every now and then. We just need to go there, unnoticed at best, and contact them."

"And what are we going to say? Ichliebedich?"

"Oh, come on now. I graduated graphic design. I know how to present complex ideas through simple images." I paused for a moment and interrupted him as he opened his mouth. "And no, I won't make a poster for this."

"Oh, I was actually picturing you doing an interpretive dance."

"I was thinking of holograms but then again…"

The next few days the weather remained dark and gloomy. It didn't rain much but it did feel very oppressing and dampened everyone's already crushed mood. Every once in a while we went out for a casual stroll around the alleged sites and we did in fact notice that there were some "suspicious people" hanging there. So now, it was up to me with coming up with a simple and easy way of dealing with the communication issues. I really hated myself for not paying attention in school during German classes…but then again, for some reason far-eastern languages, like Japanese and Korean, were a tonne easier for me than German.

One of those mornings we decided to make "the move" and meet up with those Resistance dudes. It was not going to be easy and it sure as hell was going to be dangerous. If any of the CPs noticed us going around in streets for no reasons… we would have a hard time explaining ourselves.

We casually walked along the mostly empty boulevard and took a turn down one of the smaller and completely empty streets. I was looking around without seeming too suspicious, without turning my head around for no apparent reason. We both kept our heads low as to try and avoid any chance of someone seeing our faces.

We took another turn a bit later and stopped by the side of an old dumpster, which was filled with long decayed trash. To our luck there was a person, dressed in the same blue civvies, just like as us, looking as terrified as one could be in a situation like this. We stood there, not quite sure what to say and what to do. Aposiopesis was the first to speak.

"We are looking for the…"

"Resistance?" The German man asked with a slight accent. "Well, you found it. Are you looking for a way out?" We were surprised that he spoke English. That was definitely going to make it easier. What's more he didn't seem like a guy to spend too much time with chit-chatter. He seemed more like a "man of action".

"Not quite." I replied. "More like, becoming part of the whole thing."

The other suppressed his laughter and just smirked.

"If you escape you become part of the Resistance whether you like it or not. The Combine don't quite care if you carry a gun who you are if you are caught somewhere where you shouldn't be. They will shoot you anyway. But we shouldn't speak here. I'm waiting for a small group, after they come, you follow me." He spoke fast and with a note of fierce determination.

"Isn't it a bit dangerous doing this in daylight?" I asked and turned my head towards the street. "I mean, during the night there are patrols and all but you can see and hear them before they see you…"

"No." He replied sharply, interrupting me. "The sewers are always dark and we need light in there to move people. Also, there is no Overwatch down there. In the night it's as dark as it gets down there. Plus, you don't want to be cornered by the rats living there if the light stops."

He had a point. I couldn't deny that. Whatever he meant by "the light". The rats that I had seen on the surface were quite formidable and those down below would be even bigger. I had no idea what they were feeding on but I felt compelled to believe the man. And it made me worried.

Ok, more worried than before.

I knew that rats wouldn't be the end of me…and that rats were hardly the most dangerous thing down there, but then again… there weren't many things in the world that wouldn't kill you.

We waited in relative silence for the group in question. I looked around, at the change of scenery. Of course, that would be a figure of speech as hardly anything looked different. But for a mind, so used to seeing the same thing through the window and going the same way through a ruining city, this part of C43 looked more interesting than one would assume.

Eventually the awaited group arrived and the German man leaded us towards the inner parts of the complex, of which this alley was a part of. I couldn't help the feeling of eerie dread that hanged in the air. I looked at Aposiopesis, who seemed focused on his thoughts and then looked about once more. By the looks of it this entire complex was abandoned. It was stunning how such a big city was left with what felt like a couple of thousand people at best. It could only make one wonder how many people were still alive, how many cities actually still existed and why on earth did the Overwatch actually look after the populace.

The small group consisted of three girls and a guy, all quite pale and worried. As if it wasn't suspicious that we were seven people in a group, four of which had suitcases, they kept looking around worriedly and kept pressing their small bags and suitcases closer to their bodies.

There was some moaning coming from one of the nearby buildings and it just made the group even more nervous. I glanced to the frame, from which the moaning seemed to come from, and saw a silhouette of a zombie inside, mindlessly moaning and walking around. It was no new or strange scene but it was disturbing none the less. My personal experience with those zombies had lead me to believe that the person trapped inside was still able to feel, was still conscious…just not in control of his body. And those moans…were more like pleads for help and yells of pain, which managed to bypass the headcrab's control. All the more disgusting and worrying.

As time passed, the person would eventually die and turn into those fast, mindless zombies with nothing but muscles, sinew and bones left from their bodies. Those were the worst… their howl was blood chilling and wasn't the best thing that you could hope to hear in the dead of night. On several occasions they made their way into the city, running rampart on the roofs, in the sewers or on the streets. This happened a few times and the Combine had their hands full with the zombies. A lot of people managed to break out during these periods, which I suppose was a good thing, but quite a lot met their end and entire buildings were sealed after each incident.

We reached an old apartment block, which was sealed from the inside, and walked towards one of the entrances. It was facing an old playground, now abandoned and rusted. There was a small pile of bodies near one of the edges and a rather unpleasant odour coming from them. I really couldn't quite understand how everything went to hell so fast.

The leader climbed the few steps to the front door, looked around and then pulled away the planks which barred the way. It was clear that they were just placed there for show, and we entered. The escorted seemed terrified by this place and one of the girls was shivering. The guide told them something in German and then we proceeded to the basement. The air was stale and dry. Our steps made dust rise and I had to supress some sneezes.

"Where does all this lead to?" I asked as I minded my steps, going around a dead headcrab.

"Out of the city, of course." The man replied. I felt compelled to say something deeply sarcastic, regarding him and flying through windows, but decided that now was not the time to dwell on small things.

"Where exactly?" I insisted. The man sighed. And stopped. He looked at us, clearly in a conflict with himself. A rather too obvious conflict in my opinion. "We aren't here to report you to the Combine." I said. "Do we look like people in need of anything but freedom?" I spread my hands away from my body. I really liked it that we did try to keep ourselves above the degrading levels of society. The man sighed.

"Okay then. I am Edmund. Just follow me and I will tell you as we make way to the first check point."

Aposiopesis and I nodded and tailed the German man and the group. We went to the sparsely lit basement and he took an old and dusty flashlight that was laying seemingly pointlessly on the ground. He was talking to the refugees in German and I could only make out a few words such as Combine, Overwatch, headcrabs, zombies, barnacles, danger, care, and food and check point. He opened one of the old compartments which was still packed with the goods of whoever used to own it before the Combine. An old bike, lots of jars, some broken, with syrup or fruits, some crates with goods and so on. Stuff that one'd expect to find in a basement.

The leader moved one of the crates in question and it unravelled a hole in the ground, from which we could see the sewers. He clicked the flashlight on and shined its light down the shallow hole. I must say that this made me excited and elated! Things were getting interesting at last, after five years of nothing! The drop was short one and there was a pile of musty mattresses at the bottom, just in case it seemed. The guy from the escorted group jumped first and as he landed a cloud of dust filled the air. The guy started coughing and some rats ran away in fear.

The girls followed and so did we. The guy was the last to come and we started walking forward in the light of the flashlight and from whatever made it through from above.

"Mind the barnacles." He warned and shined the light up along one thin ochre-brown line, which I hadn't noticed, all the way to the top, where a barnacle had latched to the concrete ceiling of the sewers. "This is no easy way out of the city but it's the only one that you have a chance to survive." He explained.

"I like the odds." Aposiopesis said.

"It works like this. There are stations along the route. When you reach them your escort will be taken by someone else and the one that has been with you so far, goes back. This way we don't risk being…oh what was the word… found as much? Yes… If you really want to join us after this is done instead of just getting out, you will need to learn a few things."

"We are not leaving. Not immediately anyway." I said a bit suddenly, remembering that as much as we didn't have much that we own, my electronics were still working and they just needed power.

"Ookay." He seemed a bit surprised by my sudden response. I should have handled it better. "At the end of this long trip you end up down along the river. From there on it is an entirely new route to one of the castles in the mountains, which serves as our stronghold. I haven't been there though."

"Castle. Nice." I replied. It seemed like a good idea. Those things were old, strong, modernized and quite secure.

Edmund went on talking and explaining little things like, few others know English, the Resistance forces after the first stations were permanently stationed there and were no longer "citizens". They were supplied with food and some other basic necessities and had a place to sleep. Some, though, lived in the city none the less, as they lived near the station and had no problem with heading in and out often. In my opinion this wasn't the best thing to do as the Combine could easily see the pattern of those few citizens moving in and out through the city and "vanishing" into the thin air.


	2. Chapter 2: Ω

Chapter 2:Ω

Sometime later, we were back at our apartment and we were sitting at the table, eating in silence as always. But this time we were both mused in thoughts of what we saw and what we were going to do. I chewed without even thinking of how pointless this was. After a short while I sighed and tossed my spoon in the plate.

"I think that if we are to do this it might be better to be somewhere past the first station."

"Why? You like the idea of being endangered by headcrabs?" Aposiopesis asked and looked at me.

"Application hazards." I replied with a serious tone though quite aware that this was a joke. "What I mean is that our dear neighbours are already very suspicious of us…if they see us walking about too often I think that we will be seeing the insides of the CP department again very soon." I clarified my reasons.

"I suppose it is true. But I also suppose that if something goes wrong…we will be able to sneak around and be here for when things get heated." He said and stood up, taking his empty plate to the sink.

"That is rather selfish, coming from you. And I don't quite agree that we can simply walk back into Berlin."

"Pfft." He scoffed. "Do you think that they would really let us be part of the Resistance just like that because of the goodness of their hearts?"

"Maybe. I don't know. Why not?" I shrugged my shoulders. "But I hate being caught by the Overwatch. This guy, Edmund, doesn't seem like he wants or needs help sneaking people off and I am in no hurry to apply for that position."

"Look, even if they raid the network, we can always beat it and come back. It's not like we have ID cards or passports or anything like that. As long as we are in civvies and in the city, we are fine."

I sighed and buried my fingers in my hair. Truth be told, I had lost heart a long time ago, and if I was alone I wouldn't really give a damn anymore. As much as Aposiopesis and I kept our cool, we were scared. Every day. There was no reason not to be scared. The Overwatch, a chance of a wild zombie attack, a chance for a headhumper, chance of being falsely reported by others, having to drink only rain water as the tapped one and the free cans were spiked. In all honesty, life outside the city seemed safer and better even though the odd of being eaten were significantly greater. Harder maybe, but more secure by far. On the bright side, this was the only real danger outside of the Combine controlled cities.

But Aposiopesis had a point. I didn't feel like it was a good idea but we could always walk out. But the thought of being gone for who knows how long and suddenly returning would be…very suspicious to put it lightly. I really wished that I wouldn't have to deal with this problem. Ever.

Decisions, decisions, decisions. I concluded that letting it sink in my mind and decide in the morning. The dawn is always wiser. And then a voice in my head interrupted me by adding "_Unless it's the Dawn of the Dead!_" and I couldn't argue. That would be bad. But this also proved how much the Internet had imprinted on me.

Instead of dwelling on this I just went to sleep, already quite aware that tomorrow I will be packing my stuff and that I was just delaying the inevitable once more.

Needless to say, Aposiopesis was already gathering up the few things that we had when I woke up. I stretched, went to the bathroom to wash myself and to prepare myself mentally for it all. This was going to be it. The change. From enslaved by the Combine Overwatch to…well enslaved by myself and necessity. I looked at my reflection in the mirror and narrowed my lips. One of the things that I really hated about the Overwatch was how they stripped you of your personality, of that that made you different. All the men had short hair, merely a few centimetres, and all the women had long hair. Stereotypical as hell, I was pretty sure that Dr Breen was the mastermind behind this. It made us feel like prisoners, without being able to choose anything. And those civvies…

I cringed with anger. Those Combine aliens had another thing coming! Aposiopesis and I were gamers, before the end, and were more than well acquainted with crafting materials and making something out of nothing. A song suddenly came up in my mind and made me smile. It had been a long while since I last remembered a song. My heart was beating lively and I could feel the adrenaline, even though nothing had happened yet. I was excited! I felt alive! Who wouldn't be? Aposiopesis was surely excited and or nervous as well, though he wouldn't really show it. There was no need to anyway. That would actually just draw more attention to us. It was not going to be easy but it was going to be worth it. Tenfold.

I wasted no time and packed up my electronics, wrapped in some ancient bubble wrap and duct tape. I threw some clothes in my shoulder bag and was about to toss the electronics in when Aposiopesis walked in.

"You look different." He spoke.

"Yes, I know." I replied quickly. "I am excited that we are taking things in our hands." I said and glanced at him as I was wrapping a shirt around the electronics package.

"Well I am also excited and all but…you seem way too radiant…someone might get suspicious."

"I know. I'll cool down soon enough." I replied, but I was not sure if this was true.

"We should pack a frying pan and a pot. We will need to cook in something after all. We can't count on the thought that there would be cooking utensils in the sewers…"

"Oh…yes…But they will make a noise so we'll need to wrap them up in something…" I started saying.

"Like clothes."

"Exactly." I went to the kitchen and took a pan and a pot, washed them thoroughly and then wrapped them in clothes before putting them in one of the suit cases which were given to us. I knew that the Combine liked relocating us even though this hadn't happened to me and Aposiopesis so far. Every now and then they allowed citizens to relocate if they asked for it, but that was hardly something that happened often.

We put the rest of our stuff in our suitcases and I put my electronics in my bag, inside some clothes.

"Do you really think that we will ever find electricity or batteries for these?"

"Hey. There is electricity. They just watch the use so even charging would be noticed."

"And you think that those batteries will work after all that time?" He asked and sighed. There was no question that he was right but also there was no question that he also wanted them to work. There was more than just music back up in there.

"No. I wager the batteries are long dead. Most of these things just need a constant power supply. That's all."

"Well…I am not carrying that bag." He said and looked around. "Let's go get the last bag of rations and decide when we are going to leave."

"Yeah. I don't think that the two of us looking all packed up and ready to leave would go unnoticed. Maybe just before curfew."

"Mmm. Yes." He rubbed his chin. "But I wouldn't like to run into any CPs doing surprise check-ups just as we make our way out. Maybe after curfew is better."

"Let's just hope that the moon will be out then." I said and sighed deeply. That sighing thing had become a strong habit recently. "Right…ok so let's go get the rations, after midnight we beat it out of here and escort people… for an unknown period of time."

"Let's not keep the Overwatch waiting then."

Everything went along the plan. We walked out of the building to get our rations, the cold autumn air was biting us and was slowly making its way through our clothes. There was a light wind which rolled some trash around. We calmly walked along the boulevard and passed by three CPs, that looked at us suspiciously, I suppose. There were more people at the vending machine than usual but we had no rush. I had steeled myself and just acted like I did every day. We took our rations and headed back with the usual casual speed. We passed the same group of CPs and this time it sounded like they laughed. I didn't even bother to look at them. Probably a good decision considering that they would arrest us for that.

When we got back to our apartment we checked everything again, had lunch, washed up, probably for the last time for the coming weeks and began wasting time like every other day. The evening was still far and we needed to wait out for the sun to set and the moon to rise.

Night fell and there were only a few clouds out. It was almost freezing cold and there was no one in the streets. Apparently even the CPs, being humans still, didn't like the cold. I never felt more prepared for something in my life. Aposiopesis was in the same mood and the same feeling expectation hanged around him even if he didn't show it as openly as I did.

We silently took our stuff, and walked out the front door into the stairway. We needn't dress up as we had no heating in the apartment and we had our clothes for outside on ourselves at all times. We went down, carrying our stuff, as silent as we could be and walked out in the street. The screeching door made a lot of noise so we made haste along the dark boulevard. Some street lamps were on and working but we kept away from them. Being seen would be bad.

With swiftness we made tracks to the secluded alley and then into the abandoned apartment complex. My heart was thumping like mad. We risked it all. Risked losing our lives, which was the only real thing that we had left.

We made it so far and from here it would be easy. As we got to the entrance I looked back to the playground and eyed it up. Nothing seemed new or different. But then I saw it with the edge of my eyes. I looked towards the place and narrowed my lips. That was not good at all.

We entered the building and made our way with the help of the flashlight, to the basement and as soon as we found it and entered it we closed the door behind us. I moved the crate and looked down. It looked clear but now I could understand what Edmund meant when he talked about moving through the sewers in the night. Some rats fled as the light came down. And they looked big.

"I wonder how the others actually live down there and sleep at night." I said, more to myself than to Aposiopesis. He remained silent. "Remember that pile of corpses that was in the playground when Edmund first brought us through?"

"Yes."

"Well, it's being managed."

"Managed?" Aposiopesis asked, a bit curiously. "How so?"

"Well, it was bigger now."

"Are you sure that you weren't seeing things? I mean it is dark now and all…" He said, his voice trailing off a bit.

"I am quite confident that it was almost a meter higher now."

"So, probably the Overwatch is clearing out the sector from zombies and corpses. But it could be the Resistance as well."

"Could be…but I'd rather stay alert and ready to beat it rather than count of that being the Resistance."

"Sounds logical."

I pulled the crate back over the hole.

"Maybe we should wait for daylight." I suggested. "Because there will be more light, because here we are safe and because if there is a patrol over us we risk them seeing the flashlight's light."

"Ok. I just hope we don't have guests of any sort." He agreed and placed the old flashlight on the crate. "I wouldn't mind some sleep."

"Well, we should bar the door then." I said and looked around. I found some planks and leaned them against the door's handle and checked if it was sturdy enough.

"Feels good."

"Well, good night then." Aposiopesis said and laid on some of the crates.

We made ourselves comfortable. I laid on some bags and closed my eyes. It was quiet, and that was good. The better part was that for once, me being a light sleeper would come in handy. A simple nudge on the door would wake me up and now, I wouldn't be upset because of that…

The morning came fast and we woke up, a bit hungry. I yawned and put my glasses on. I looked around the room. Nothing had changed and it was still quiet as before. Sunlight was coming from the dirty small window, allowing us to see without the need for the flashlight.

I wondered if there was anything useful down here and got up. Just my luck, I spotted a box which had a faded image of a candle. I reached for it and opened it, surprised to see that there were in fact candles inside. Some luck that was.

"Well, those will do nicely." I murmured to myself.

"Maybe we should check around though I fear that the other basements might be occupied." Aposiopesis said and startled me. I glanced at him and he gave me a confused look.

"Let's just see what we can find here and not leave much traces." I suggested and as I placed the box of candles on the box that we were going to move, I opened one of the crates.

"Pfft, not leaving traces." He laughed for a moment. "We already left so many here that I don't think that it would make a difference if we paint the walls pink and write "We were hear!11". If the Combine get here, they will intend to get here. Only a long time and a thick layer of dust can cover our tracks."

"Fair. Enough." I said, cutting the words at the end.

We spent some time rummaging around the small dusty room and we managed to gather some things like extension cords, some old books (maybe the locals would appreciate something to read) and other stuff that we decided to pick up later.

"You know, Aposiopesis…I feel like in one of those zombie survival games where we have to look for useful items in any place where you can."

"True. But at least if we get scratched or bitten we won't have to shoot ourselves in the head."

"That's a major bonus."

I packed the new additions to our supplies, removed the plank that was holding the door and after that we moved the box, checking out the stinking sewers. When I made sure that nothing would jump at me I leapt down the hole and Aposiopesis followed me.

"So far so good. Now, we just need not become something's food." He said and we made our way through the sewers.

We went on along the gloomy drains, our steps making squeaky noises which weren't among the most pleasant ones. I was so happy that I had my boots, as they had thick soles and were the only thing which wasn't taken away from me. That and the hidden electronics. Aposiopesis was in the same boots. Quite literally. We went on our sightseeing trip in the spring so warm boots was something that I thought that would come in handy.

As we moved along the sewers we evaded all the barnacle tongues and looked around carefully for headcrabs. Luckily for us, some of the mentioned barnacles seemed busy with eating something, probably unlucky rats or even more fortunately, headcrabs! The mentioned barnacles' tongues were retracted and we could hear munching sounds.

Following the main sewer and along the slowly moving mass of liquid sewage we reached the first outpost without any problems other than feeling sick from the smell. We were happy to see that Edmund was there. He saw us, jumped up and walked towards us, a bit sullenly.

"Oh, here you are. I thought you got captured." He spoke.

"No, we are fine. We arrived in the basement last night but decided that it's best for us to wait out the daylight." I explained.

"Okay." He replied and looked at us with some annoyance. Or maybe it was anger. Or concern?

"We also have something that you might like to share with others…" Aposiopesis broke the silence and handed him a pile of books that we wrapped up from the cellar. The German took them and furrowed his eyebrows.

"Where did you get them from?" He asked.

"You are welcome…" My friend said and gave Edmund a pretty clear look that he wants for things to move on.

"Did you take it from the basement?!" He asked, clearly angry.

"What does it matter where they are from?" Aposiopesis asked.

"Because they will see that someone has been rummaging there! Verdammt!" He growled with frustration.

"That would hardly lead them here if they just happen to stumble into the basement." I said quickly. "And if they don't accidentally stumble into it and intentionally then they would have been sent there with purpose. Doesn't matter if it would be to look for the Resistance or to look for hiding people. They will be quite aware of what they are doing there."

The man growled with frustration.

"You…argh…let's just go before I lose it…this week is a nightmare!" He started mumbling as he lead us through the sewers.

That wasn't the best way in which I would have imagined our entry in the Resistance against the Overwatch, but I guess it was something. I was confident that our stay wouldn't be long, at least not here. I couldn't help the feeling that very soon we would have to deal with the Combine…


	3. Chapter 3: Moaning Canal

Chapter 3: Moaning Canal

I was sitting on one of the chairs that were in our station, rocking my legs quite carelessly. Our station was a rather cosy place, as much as a segment of the sewers separated by chipboard and old roofing panels, could be defined as cosy. The ceiling was quite high above us, no real idea why, we had a radio station, which we didn't listen to as the only things that we could hear from that were orders in German. We also had a generator to power it and the lights in our sector. We slept on two old mattresses and also had some carpets to overlay the sticky cement floor but they actually made it a bit worse as they were very dusty and stepping on them always made a cloud of dust. Whoever was stationed here before us really didn't give a damn about anything.

Most importantly, though, from all the things that we had, there was a power outlet. Through it we could use the power to charge one of my MP3 players and listen to music! Or if not charge, due to stale battery, then to keep plugged in and powered. Aposiopesis wasn't far behind and we took turns keeping watch and listening to music. But in order for us to keep doing our work we repositioned the "watch tower" to a higher place which we made by stacking some chipboard boxes on top of each other. Being all the way up really helped us see the main route of the canal and the one which came perpendicularly.

Every other day Edmond came with fuel for the generator and with food. He was quite upset with us over the "scavenging" of the basement but then again, we did our all so hard and labouring job just fine. Even though we had all these extras I really hoped that being part of the Resistance would be more fascinating and interesting than this. We spent almost a week without anything happening at all. Not even rats trying to eat us. No headcrabs, no zombies, no nothing. Even the sewers stopped smelling like sewage. Or we got used to the stench. I am not quite sure, but the latter sounds more probable.

Aposiopesis was equally unamused and every now and then we had short walks around the dark parts of the network to see what we could find. Maybe some useful items could be stumbled upon. We did realize the danger that we were putting ourselves in but we were quite confident that we would be able to handle anything that we could find here.

Unfortunately, there wasn't anything fascinating. The walls were mostly blank, made from old rounded by ware-and-tear bricks, which were visible because the coating, which was peeling off. There was the occasional ancient graffiti but pretty much, that was it. There weren't even zombies or headcrabs. The old railing which was once used to keep the workers from slipping into the canal was still there, rusted and bent here and there, but was generally intact. Also useless, as the amount of sewage flowing through the canal itself was something like a tenth of what was normal before the Combine.

As shocking as it may sound the most interesting things that we stumbled upon were a whole set of old shoes, which were used to plug some drain, quite loosely, but considering that it was constantly leaking, we concluded that there was water building up in there.

"I wonder who is getting his revenge…" I asked as we walked calmly along one of the smaller and tighter sewers later that day.

"Hm?" Aposiopesis glanced at me for a moment.

"That shoe-plugged drain."

"Ah…right. I have no clue." He replied. "Maybe the Resistance are being nice to someone. Why do you ask?"

"Because I am bored as fuck and there hasn't been anything interesting since we came here. Seriously. Being up there and doing nothing was better than being here and doing nothing."

"At least we are doing nothing for a good cause…" He scoffed.

We went on walking in silence. I knew that that sounded quite like the "spoiled child" but all things considered there was no real difference apart from the "freedom" to go "wherever" we want. I traced another barnacle with my flashlight and contemplated it for a moment, realizing that the tongue was not hanging. A few moments later the mouth it opened and spewed a rat's crushed bones. They fell down on the ground with a blob like sound. They were covered in slime and ooze which slowly flowed away.

"Magical." I said and we went on.

This part of the sewers was new to us and there were more old graffiti on the walls but nothing more interesting than this. I would have enjoyed fighting a zombie, even though were armed just with a wrench and a pipe, as the others didn't feel like we needed guns. Honestly, I didn't feel like using one, even though each and every Overwatch soldier deserved a bullet in the head.

"Well, a dead end." I said as we stopped at the end of this part of the sewer, with only a whole set of pipes leading into the canal. One of the mentioned spilled some sewage water into the quite dry trench.

"Let's get back. We might be needed to escort someone" He said with voice completely devoid of emotion and we turned around. This day couldn't get any more boring.

As we traced our steps back to our station the day did in fact get more interesting, as we encountered our first zombie in the sewers! At first we taught that it was someone living and lost but then "he" and with lumping moves it slowly dragged itself around, moaning. For luck or not, there was also a barnacle in the way and we paused for a moment. I left my wrench on the ground and positioned myself in a line with the zombie and the barnacle.

"Oh, but I wanted to whack it a few times!" Aposiopesis whined with disappoint.

"I didn't take you for so violent." I said and smirked. Aposiopesis scoffed in response and looked at the zombie. "Besides, I'd rather not…" And then I clapped loudly a few times, dragging the zombie's attention.

"Pff, why not? It's not like it matters."

"Well…I think that the person inside is still alive and in enough pain and agony as it is."

"What makes you say that?" He asked and tilted his head as the zombie limped towards us, moaning incoherently.

"The moans."

"The moans, eh?" I needn't look at him to know that he was making one of his scepticism faces. "Yes, I think he's reciting Shakespeare."

"I suppose you need to hear it to understand."

"Or…you could tell me about it?"

I sighed and backed away as the zombie almost got to the sticky, brown tongue.

"Well, when they are shot at they react. With something like "Ow". Shouting in general is a reflex to "warn the other humans" of danger." The zombie reached the tongue and the extension quickly stack itself to the unlucky zombie. "Obviously this isn't quite valid at the moment. But when they are on fire I seriously can distinguish yells of pain and things like "Oh my goooood! Aaaaaarhn! Oooo…" And…other things alike."

"Are you sure?" He probed further as we watched the unfortunate zombie being dragged towards the maw of teeth. It bashed its hands around and seemed like it was aware of what was going to happen to it as it kept intensifying its struggle.

"Well…I am sure what I heard. I might be wrong but then again…if I am right, the best thing that we can do is to let them die as fast as possible."

There was a loud crunch that followed and the limbs relaxed down. The barnacle was slowly devouring the whole body and sickening crunching noises came from the corpse, as it was being crushed. I knew that barnacles were a force to be reckoned with but this really heightened my awareness. What was more shocking was that it did take it all in, growing in size almost three times, stretching itself in very awkward position.

"Well, I'll be damned…" I said.

"Yeah, no happy end."

I was a bit shocked by what I saw.

"Happy end is a point of perspective. And we seem to be laughing."

"Pfft, don't make me laugh."

We went back to our station and I got on top of the watch chair. Everything was calm and quiet. With delight I put my headset on, leaned back and switched the music on. It felt so good…

The next day Edmond walked up to us with three citizens, who looked terrified and pale as snow. I took my headphones down and got off the chair on the top with one "heroic" leap from the top.

"Hello." I greeted and waved at the group, with some content that we were finally going to do something useful…or at least interact to a minimal level with others. The group greeted us back but Edmond remained a bit cold and went directly to the point.

"Well, these are the first guys that you will have to escort." He said and then handed us a 9mm gun each.

"Why the change of heart?" Aposiopesis asked, as he took the cold metallic weapon. The German man sighed and looked back.

"The Overwatch seems to be on to us." He started speaking, going directly to the point. "Some of the lookouts report that there is a lot more Combine activity than usual, near the various entry points."

He explained with a bit worried tone. I really didn't like this piece of information. This meant only trouble and the chance of dying. Or even worse, being captured. I wasn't quite sure of what the Overwatch did to captives but the rumour was that being turned into a soldier was the "good" ending scenario for your life.

"So…" Edmond went on speaking. "We will relocate you two to a more inner part of the route, all the way down to station 5, which leads out to the end of the canals." He went on and I looked at Aposiopesis. This was good…I think. "You will have a third member of the Resistance there because you will need to be able to communicate with the transport when it comes and the girl knows English too."

"Okay…Let's pack up then." I said and turned around towards our stuff. It wasn't like we had made ourselves at home but some of our belongings were spread around the "house". I quickly packed our electronics and duct taped them again, stashed everything back in the suitcases and within a few minutes we were ready to go.

Ready and worried. No matter how we looked at it, this was not really good. What I had noticed when we arrived seemed to have been true and we would have to come up with some way of getting out of here undetected, if need would arise.

Edmond lead us all towards the next station, quite carefully, with a weapon held out. Unlike us, he had a SMG1 and this further concerned me but I decided not to voice my worries as it would not be of help.

I took one suitcase and Aposiopesis took the second before we started walking in silence towards the next station, avoiding the numerous barnacles that were hanging in groups here and there. Some were latched above the almost dry sewer canal and some seemed dead, probably from starvation.

We walked cautiously along the old canals, quite happy that the Resistance had installed simple light bulb lamps along the way. They didn't shine too much light in the damp and dark sewers but it was something. As if there was nothing out of place. At all. Trash everywhere, a dead headcrab once in a while, and barnacles as much as your heart desires, quite a lot of worryingly large piles of rat bones under them…

Every once in a while we crossed a junction with other sections of the sewers but most of them were walled off with planks or fences brought from above. There were quite a lot of pieces of meat hanging from them, signifying quite clearly that something tried to go through. I decided not to think about this too much as the ill air down here was sickening enough.

The way lead us over some placed planks, which went over one of the other sewer trenches which connected to this one. Every now and then we passed some small pipes which trickled filthy water into the trench. Suddenly Edmond stopped and pointed ahead.

"Headcrabs." He said and we looked towards the creatures in the near distance right under one of the light bulbs. I was dead sure that they looked back at us and started crawling towards us. The German aimed his SMG1 but Aposiopesis and I simultaneously halted him.

"That would be a waste of ammo." My friend said and I nodded. We aimed our guns and them and pulled the trigger. His gun fired but mine didn't . I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at it. It was loaded, and…the safety trigger was on. I switched it off and aimed again. I shot and the bullet hit right next to one of the headhumpers. I shot again and broke off one of the legs of the other, making it squeal or growl…or whatever headcrabs do to show that they are in pain. Narrowing my lips from frustration I focused a bit more and aimed again. This time managed to hit one of the headcrabs, killing it on the spot. In a few shots we killed off the rest and reloaded the guns.

"Not bad but when the Combine come, you won't have time for precision shooting." Edmond said, somewhat bitterly. I really had no idea what his problem was. Yes, we weren't as accurate as I gathered that we would be, considering the long hours and nights we used to spend playing shooters and games in general. We went on and as we passed the headcrabs we kicked them down the sewers.

Soon we reached another plank crossing but unfortunately this one was knocked down and there was a zombie without legs crawling down in the muck. What worried us most though, was that the wall that was keeping the unlit sector had collapsed down. I looked back down and saw the zombie's legs some distance down the canal.

"Great… Fucking zombies…" Edmond cursed and then went on murmuring in German as he looked around.

The escapees looked at him and nodded, then he looked towards the side of the canal which was obviously the route that we had to take, even though it was dark. I just hoped that the collapsed wall wasn't the work of a zombie but of sloppy work.

The German took his backpack off and rummaged through it. He tossed some ammo magazines to us and we stashed them in our pockets, then he gave Aposiopesis and me a flashlight and got up.

"Be careful." He said plainly and stood up before he headed into the dark area.

"You shoot, I'll take the suitcases." I said and nodded towards my friend.

"If you insist…" He handed me his suitcase and prepared his gun. I put the flashlight in my mouth, biting into it, trying not to touch it in any other way with lips, tongue or whatever. Getting some wicked disease now wouldn't be the best thing to do but I needed to see where I was going and that seemed like the best way. Aposiopesis looked at me then stopped, and opened one of the suitcases. He took out some of the clean pieces of clothes that we had, a bit tattered but clean, ripped some of it and handed it to me.

"Thanks." I replied after I took the flashlight out from between my teeth. I wrapped it in the cloth and bit on it again, more calmly.

"If I were you I would have tied it around my forehead rather than biting it, but…I guess it depends on what you want to do…"

I just shrugged my shoulders in response and we followed the three escapees and kept our ears perked up. Everything was silent and calm and the only real noise came from above, through the sewer covers. Every now and then I glanced up as we went on and could see the sky and hear voices. Cold air was descending from the shafts…clean air, but cold. It was biting our skin with its freshness.

Edmond stopped at a crossroad and looked around, shining his light in all directions. We needed to just get across, but this crossroad made it significantly harder. I left the suitcases down and walked up to him. Taking the flashlight of from between my teeth I looked down at the sewers. In this part they were all dried up and there was just a lot of old trash and cracked from the lack of water muck. Mostly pieces of cloth, some broken bottles, old shoes, glass, plastic, paper littered the bottom. Everything was generally piled along the edges of the roughly two meter deep trench, but it wasn't high enough to help us get back up at the other side. At least it wasn't high enough for me.

I turned a bit to the side, to look in the direction from which we came and my eyes widened as a headcrab launched itself toward me. I ducked reflectively and the creature overshot me, landing across on the other side of the crossing. Before anyone could say something there were gunshots and the creature growled for the last time. My heart was beating fast and I was suddenly very aware of our surroundings.

"That…was too close for comfort." I said and looked at Aposiopesis who was holding the gun.

"Are you fine, Necril?"

"Yes, yes…just shaken up…"

I cautiously peered back down and shined the light along the length of the dry canal. There was nothing dangerous anymore down there. Some shuffling sounds made me look back up towards the left side, where we would have had to go through if we couldn't cross. There were a lot of zombies there… A lot a lot of zombies. The gunshots had alarmed them and now they were lumping towards us.

"Fiddlesticks…" I murmured and Edmond looked at the other Germans. He started speaking and pointing at the yonder, explaining something quietly. I followed his gestures and looked at the places which he pointed towards. From what I could gather he was telling them that we are going to go down and just cross the dry canal, climb up across and get back to the main route. When he was done explaining he turned towards us.

"Yes, we got it." I said and he furrowed his eyebrows.

"But you said you didn't know German." He seemed displeased…almost angry, again.

"We don't. But you didn't use just German." Aposiopesis said and walked towards the rail, peering down as well.

"What?" He asked.

"Let's just go before the zombies get here." I ushered him and shined my light over the other way of the canal. It was safe as well.

I was the first who jumped over the rail and then down the small drop. The dry sewage cracked with a lot of noise and made a dust cloud rise. I covered my nose with the cloth that I used to hold the flashlight with and suppressed my cough and feeling of nausea. I couldn't believe how much this reeked even when dry. Aposiopesis handed down the suitcases and quickly followed me, followed by the escapees. The leader leapt over the fence and landed safely down.

"Let's go." He nodded towards one of the canals which was not the one that we needed to follow.

"But this is…" I started speaking but he just glared at me.

"Go!"

I sighed. I didn't like this but bit down on the flashlight, took the suitcases and followed him, Aposiopesis tightly behind me. We went on along the dry sewer, lightly running, making too much noise in my opinion. I didn't like this at all and I hoped that Edmond knew where he was going. The dirt beneath our feet cracked and dust came up in the air. Every now and then we stepped on bottles, which broke and cracked even more. I really hoped that there wouldn't be more zombies here.

Nothing changed for a long time. There were the occasional barnacles hanging from above, mostly dead, lots of trash and the monotone cracking of the dirt under our feet. The light coming from above was enough to help us see generally where we were going but without the flashlights we would have bumped into some of the barnacles, if nothing else.

I was worried and my heart was beating a bit faster than usual, my senses were sharpened and every so often I flanked up towards some imaginary or non-imaginary noises. I couldn't be at ease in these dark sewers. There were far too many things that could kill us down here.

Sometime later we came across a T junction and looked towards the up-sloped canal.

"Fuu~k…" Was the only word that came out of my mouth, distorted by the flashlight. There were some zombies there and they were made aware of this. But the biggest problem was that there were fast zombies.

A dreadful howl filled the air as we prepared to fight for our lives. I dropped the cases and reached for my gun just as the horrific creatures started charging down on us on all four. Edmond opened fire and Aposiopesis did too. Yellowish-green and red blood started coming out from the zombies as bright flashes and loud bangs filled the canal and echoed through it. We were shooting as fast as we could and as accurately as we could, aiming for the headcrabs. One of the fast zombies targeted me and started running towards me. I aimed at him but after two shots I ran out of bullets and my heart skipped a beat. Someone managed to get a headshot on it just before it jumped at me and it collapsed on the ground, its torso tumbling towards me. I reloaded with shivering hands and targeted the next nearest zombie.

The sight of the limping, open-chested monstrosities was morbid. Their moaning and the sight of the bloodied and eviscerated faces under the fallen headcrabs made me feel sick. But I didn't falter. I started reloading and something jumped on me from behind. I yelped in a muffled scream instinctively and bashed at it. It was one of the fast zombies. Apparently that strife had attracted some of the other zombies around and we were getting swarmed pretty fast.

The assailant howled dreadfully and started bashing at me, doing nothing but bruises and scratches, but even so the hits were quite painful and dangerous. I pushed it away and kicked its head in horror. My heart was beating faster than ever before. I took the wrench that I had and bashed at the creature as hard as I could as it launched itself towards me. I heard a loud cracking noise and it slumped over me, dead. But the headcrab wasn't dead. It released the corpse and the bony red head thumped down. I pushed the torso with disgust and looked for the headcrab. As I spotted it Aposiopesis filled it with several bullets and it died.

"Go. GO! Run!" Edmond said and kept on shooting at the incoming zombies. My friend pulled me on my feet and took one of the suitcases, going after Edmond.

"Come on, Necril!" He ushered me and I took the other case before dashing after him. I didn't need another invitation. To my surprise the flashlight was still in my mouth and I was incredibly happy with that… I ran after the others as more zombies awoke around us and started rising from the places where they had been laying for who knows how long. Every now and then we shot at some of the fast ones and crippled them at best.

We ran down towards the inversely sloped canal and made a right turn and headed towards the main trench. The zombies were lagging behind but we didn't slow down. The smell of wet sewage hit me and made me feel even sicker. In all honestly I had always through that I would be able to handle such situations with more guts. Alas, just as my accuracy, I wasn't as brave and as strong as I thought that I was. Even so, we survived with nothing more than some bruises, scratches and really dusty clothes.

Edmond headed towards a ladder on the side and climbed it, followed by us. He looked both ways before lowering down the gun. The escapees climbed after him, Aposiopesis at their back. I handed him the suitcase and then went up as well. My senses were still sharpened and I felt aware of far too many things.

"Are you ok?" Aposiopesis asked, with some concern. I took the flashlight out of my mouth and puffed.

"Yeah…shaken up…but ok… Are you ok?"

He nodded, showing that he was ok, and I put the cloth in my pocket and noticed that I had bitten down so hard on the flashlight that I had imprinted my teeth on the metal. I was very glad that I had that piece of cloth between me and the hardware. Braking my teeth would have been bad.

I looked down from where we came the dust was slowly settling but some zombies were already in sight. The fast one being almost at the ladder. We shot them down as fast as we could, as the monsters started climbing up. Their bodies fell lifeless down and the other zombies went on moving towards us, but were unable to use the ladder.

"I am not holding anything in my mouth ever again…" I stated and my voice trailed off.

"Let's go." Edmond commanded and headed towards the light of the main trench. I never felt so happy to see light before. Even the stench was not a bother. The old light bulbs protected by a loose net seemed like the beholders of freedom and salvation. We ran towards them and when we reached the loosely made wall, Edmond gave it a swift kick and it fell down. We crossed and we finally took a breather. The guys from the next station came into view, arms in hands, looking at us with some fear and confusion.

Edmond started talking to them and they rushed towards us. I looked at Aposiopesis and he looked back at me.

"This was very bad, you know…" I said quietly to him.

"Yeah. I am sure that no one heard that gunfight." He replied and looked up front.

"I am not sure if you are sarcastic or not, but I hope that you are because that's what I meant." We followed the others. "If the Overwatch are on to us…no doubt that this was heard."

"It was necessary." He replied shortly.

"I know that it was, I am not questioning that." I shook my head. "We should just be prepared to do something more than shooting for when things get messy."

"Well, we can be sure of one thing." He said and looked back. "You are right that it's not an "if" but a "when" situation… Now, are you sure that you are fine. You are bleeding a little bit."

I felt some blood on my face and rubbed off the tip, then looked at my finger.

"Yes, it's just a scratch." I belittled the problem and started walking after the German man. I had no idea if this was going to be the last escort but I really hoped that the others wouldn't involve zombies.

"You know, Necril, I thought that we'd be better shots than this." Aposiopesis said and I sighed; the same thought had gone through his mind as it did through mine some time ago. "Our reflexes seemed fast and all but…it was a bit too hard."

"Yes, I know. But then again…games are games and we don't have "auto-aim" in real life." We crossed another one of the plank-bridges.

"We should work on that, probably." I agreed. "Because, who knows…it might save our lives if we are able to kill that what wants to kill us before it kills us."

Aposiopesis scoffed.

"Quickly! More complex sentences!"

I just smiled in response as we reached the station of the guys who met us along the way.


End file.
